Honest Advise for Photoshop CS user

[JamesWSub]

I would like honest opinions about which cpu you would get if you were to buy one. I will mainly be doing the basic MS office stuff, working with Photoshop CS, and would like to get into video editting. Like most people, I like games too but don't consider myself an ultra gamer who need the latest. Mainly I am interested in the photoshop part as I now use a P3-500 system. I waited for prescott and was disappointed with what performance testing showed. I thought about waiting for PCI express..., but video through put really doesn't tax APG 8x so why wait. 64 bits sounds great but the software transition probably won't be for another couple years realistically.

Anyway, I narrowed my choices to between an AMD64-3400 or P4 Northwood 3.2
I am open to other suggestions, but I am trying to keep the price point below $400

Thanks for your help and opinions.

 

[Falloutboy]

its a toss up...in most things except video encoding thier ethier dead even or the A64 has a slight lead. In video encoding the p4 does have the advantage, the question is will this trend continue when 64bit comes who knows but your almost guaranteed a 5-10% speed boost once 64bit catches on, proubly more